The number of vehicle on Delhi's roads is s staggering 51 lakh and five lakh more get added every year. In the long run a good integrated mass public transport system is the answer to traffic chaos and parking woes, but multi-level automated parking lots arebeing seen as the feasible mid term solution. The NDMC has started construction work on three automated multi-level parking lots while MCD has started work on one in Kamla Nagar and expects to commission work at four south Delhi commercial hubs by January. Here is a glimpse of how easy parking will get in the next two years in Connaught Place, Sarojini Nagar , Lajpat Nagar , Defence Colony and Greater Kailash.
The desperate search of parking slots before dashing in for important office meetings and fights with parking lot attendants may become a thing of the past once the automated parking lots at Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Baba Khadak Singh Marg opposite state emporia complex become operational.
The parking lots that will look like malls are expected to be ready in two years'time.
The NDMC is constructing three parking lots (Baba Khadak Singh Marg, Sarojini Nagar and Kasturba Gandhi Marg) as part of the infrastructure augmentation plan for Commonwealth Games 2010. Two floors in each of these buildings will have shopping areas and retail in keeping with Master Plan 2021 provision that permit commercial use of up to 25 per cent in multi-level parking lots. Director Projects, NDMC Anurag Goyal said the drivers will just have to drive into the lobby and leave their car there.
The cars will be hauled up with elevator shafts that will push the car into vacant slots.
The cars are then placed on metallic plates and arranged in racks that can move up and down and sideways so that the slots nearest to the elevators are available for depositing new arrivals. The whole system is electronically controlled.
The car can be retrieved within three minutes of punching or swiping the receiver with a smart card. The rotating floor in the lobby will turn the car and make it possible to drive away without reversing the car.
The spokesperson of DS Constructions that has undertaken the construction of the 14 storey high parking lot behind the Hindustan Times building, said that the existing surface parking could accommodate approximately 350 cars only. " Once the new structure is completed, as many as 1,600 cars can be parked inside it. The capacity will take care of the needs of the next thirty years, the period during which the builder will maintain the parking lot before it is transferred to then municipality," he said.
The parking ticket cost will remain Rs 10 per hour, NDMC officials said while adding that rates cannot be so steep that people stop using the lots. There will be separate parking bays for the physically handicapped and elderly persons. There will be multiple entry points and the parking lot available at the nearest entry point is indicated when a person drives in, the developers said. The payment can be made at the ticketing booth at the exit point where the operator will indicate the toll to be paid.
Courtecy:HT ESTATES 12 January 2008
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